So, having decided on a quiet one at home his year, Mrs. No Name received an email that at the bottom in small print announced two cancellations at the Wentworth Hotel in Aldeburgh for a three night Christmas break. Shockingly, largely because we know and love the Wentworth, we acted on it straight away, booked the accommodation and received an outline of the itinerary. So far, so very good…
I’ll get the suspense out of the way as soon as possible – the whole stay was as close to ideal or perfect as you could hope for, but more on all that later!! We arrived in Aldeburgh early on Christmas Eve (well, around lunch time actually, any earlier would have been both rude and unnecessary), popped into the hotel to confirm check in time (and afternoon tea) and then wandered the town’s high street, where I bought two shirts in the sale and Mrs. No Name availed herself of a little costume jewellery. A quick coffee and then back to the hotel, a swift unpack (lovely room, BTW) and straight down to the lounge areas for the afternoon tea; essential, as we obviously hadn’t eaten for at least a couple of hours 😉.
At this juncture, I should perhaps give a little resumé on our reasons why we gave the whole break a unanimous thumbs up – so here we go. Firstly, on a completely selfish note, I would point out that there was no drying down of the shower, no cooking, no washing up, no bed making and no general cleaning up – well, there was but it was all taken care off by lovely and efficient staff with no hint of resentment about working over the Christmas period, so kudos and many, many thanks to them.
Secondly, the format of the break was close on faultless with the welcome pack emphasising that we were there to do as little or as much as we wanted. To be honest, with breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner to negotiate, there was little time to do anything else except recover! The meals were of consistently high quality and there wasn’t a single one we didn’t enjoy. You know an establishment has it spot on when the only criticism you can level at a place is that there is too much good food on offer. See the examples provided for lunch (left) and evening meal (right) for substantiation. There is of course no compulsion to indulge in all this but hey-ho! I would add only that I am from Yorkshire and that we did forego two of the afternoon teas, purely out of the goodness of our hearts (and in support of both our digestion and constitution)!! Lovely, thoughtful gifts on Christmas day were a pleasant surprise addition, although the grumpy might argue that even more delightful edibles (plus alcohol), no matter how appreciated, might be a step too far for some people. Needless to say, I didn’t hear any complaints from anyone (or from us for that matter). 🎁🍾💝
In a paltry attempt to justify all this indulgence, we did get out for post lunch rambles on both Christmas and Boxing Day (ramble might be a tad extreme). We did venture outside though, honest guv.
On the left is a collage showing both one of many desserts at the hotel and actual real life exterior ‘action shots’ (without much in the way of action) – proof after the pudding you might say. The right collage reveals the reality of excessive consumption and a couple of interior shots! And in our defence we did also squeeze in a couple of backgammon sessions when in recovery from the excellent dining (although I would concede that this particular ‘sport‘ does not in many critics books justify the term exercise. The Boxing Day evening quiz was also a good laugh, although even with a team of seven or eight we could only manage a paltry third place out of a suspiciously, quickly forgotten number of teams.
I should pronounce that the fellow guests were a lovely crowd and the whole getaway was a huge positive, clearly the result of developing, honing and delivering over the course of many years. And in the immortal words of Mrs. No Name, her highest accolade was discharged – she “wouldn’t not go back again“, which I should quickly add refers specifically to the Christmas break – we have stayed at the hotel many times before and so for general stays that accolade was already a given.